


Unbalanced Scales

by kouredios



Category: The Will Darling Adventures - K.J. Charles
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, POV switch, blowjobs against bookshelves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:01:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28114320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kouredios/pseuds/kouredios
Summary: A bit of _Slippery Creatures_ from Kim Secretan's point of view.Thanks to brutti_ma_buoni for the opportunity to write this! I enjoyed very much spending some time inside Kim's head. I'd love to continue it past Yuletide, if given the opportunity.
Relationships: Will Darling/Kim Secretan
Comments: 8
Kudos: 22
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Unbalanced Scales

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brutti_ma_buoni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brutti_ma_buoni/gifts).



Lord Arthur Aloysius Kimberley de Brabazon Secretan, “Kim” to his friends, walked into Darling’s Used and Antiquarian without much of a plan. He had the _outline_ of a plan, to be sure, but he wasn’t entirely certain what kind of man Will Darling was, and so he came in with an array of possible plans he could execute in response to whatever he found upon entering the bookshop, knowing, of course, that he would be walking into what was essentially a mugging.

Every one of the potential plans started this way:

“Hoi! What’s going on! Stop!” Kim walked into the shop just as the brute was about to stomp on the proprietor’s face. 

He knew the barest outline of who Will Darling was: a soldier, a stubborn man, a man who was in possession of information for which the War Office was desperate enough to retain the help of the Private Bureau that employed Kim Secretan. He got a rather thorough first impression though in the next instant, as Darling took advantage of the distraction Kim had created and popped up from his prone position, took a step for the inertia of it all, and kicked the brute right in the bollocks.

Kim was stunned, for about a second, enough time for Darling to warn him, “Watch out! Man’s a lunatic!”

Darling probably wasn’t far wrong; the brute was basically hired off the street. Rumbling the bookshop was a basic job, and didn’t call for any special skills. Kim sidestepped the brute as he lumbered for the door but stepped back just in time to block Darling’s way. He had grabbed a lamp off his desk and was taking off after the brute, but Kim didn’t really want Darling to catch him. The street tough wouldn’t really be able to answer any questions, and if Darling dug too deep, the brute’s motivation would be shown to be paper-thin.

They danced around each other for a moment, Kim assuming the persona of a clueless toff. Meanwhile, the tough had made a break for it, and the jangle of the bells on the door indicated that he had escaped to the street. Darling gently pushed Kim out of the way and gave chase, lamp raised and ready for action. He appeared to think better of it after a few steps, however, and Kim caught up to him handily as he stood there looking down the street with consternation in his face, the lamp still clutched in his hand.

“Has he gone, then?” Kim asked as he approached. “Shall I call the police?” He knew the answer would be no, but best to play the drama out.

“N-no. Best not.”

“Are you sure? Well, if you say so.” At this, Kim’s eye was drawn to Darling’s limp as they both turned to re-enter the bookshop. “You’re limping! Are you hurt?”

“Oh, no. Well, yes. But that’s not from today. I cut my foot.”

“You’ve been in the wars. Can I buy you a drink?”

Darling finally stopped moving and met Kim’s gaze. His eyes flickered up to Kim’s, then floated down his body and back up. Oh, ho! Wasn’t _that_ interesting. Kim filed that away for later. For now...

“I’m afraid I haven’t introduced myself. Secretan, Kim Secretan. Are you a Darling perchance? You have the look of the late proprietor.” Kim offered his hand and Darling self-consciously rubbed his on his trousers before reciprocating. His hand was thick and rough, wiry and strong, like an old English elm. It took a bit of extra willpower to drop it after the appropriately brief shake. 

“Yes, Will Darling. He was my uncle.”

“I am sorry for your loss,” Kim continued, breathing into the role of a regular customer, “he was a marvelous bookman. Have you taken on the shop? I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.” It was a calculated risk; he knew that Darling had only been learning the trade for about a month before the old man’s death. It was entirely within the realm of possibility that Kim was a regular customer who just hadn’t been by in the past month’s time.

Darling accepted Kim’s offer for a drink. No surprise there, not after the look he had given, raking up and down Kim’s long, lithe body. Using attraction as a lever to gain access to information wasn’t Kim’s _first_ choice in this line of work, but it’s one he’s used before and will use again if he has to.

Now that he has an in with Darling, he can drop enough information about the danger of the secret his uncle was hiding for his scientist friend--information which had led directly to his death--and hopefully Darling will be a reasonable enough man that he’ll turn it right over to the War Office, and Kim can move on.

*****

Will Darling is **not** a reasonable enough man.

Of course, the War Office had made the biggest blunder imaginable, sending Ingoldsby to try and extract it from him in the first place. The man was worse than a bull in a China shop. A mammoth in a crystal shop, dammit! Well, Kim tried to leverage _that_ , as well. Be the ready ear to Darling’s complaints; the steady friend to give wise advice. He sat drinking with him and played the receptive ear until Darling started to describe the situation Kim already knew he was in. Darling didn’t even know the half of it; Zodiac was after the secret, and Kim knew firsthand how ruthless they would be. He needed Darling to give that paper up, get out of the way, and go back to being a quiet bookseller.

“Tell me something: if Ingoldsby proves to be the real thing, will you give him this paper?”

“I don’t have it to give.”

“Of course not. Let him search for it, or hand it over if it turns up.”

“I don’t know. What if it’s dangerous, or discreditable? What if this scientist had secret information he shouldn’t have had?”

“Then wouldn’t the War Office be the best place to handle that?”

“I was in Flanders. I don’t have the highest regard for the War Office.”

Kim knew the former already, of course. He didn’t go into an assignment without as much information as the Private Bureau could give him. But reading it on a piece of paper and seeing it in Darling’s eyes were two different things. 

“I can’t assume that the War Office has the right of it just because they’re official. I’m not here to do the Special Branch’s job for them.”

Kim’s brows rose to the ceiling, and that wasn’t a performance. Darling had cut to the quick of the matter without even half the information Kim had. He was much more intelligent than Kim had expected, and combined with the look of him...well, Kim was going to have to tread more lightly than he had even planned. 

Darling continued, “I know it sounds like the worst popular fiction, but I honestly thought they might be some sort of...well, gang. The first man who confronted me about the secret didn’t sound foreign, but they could be anarchists or communists, I suppose.”

“Would you sympathize if they were?” Kim would have, once. Before the idealism wore off and he learned the base truth: that wherever there were true believers in a new world order, behind them was more of the same scrabble for power and wealth. Just another excuse to abuse and control.

Darling shrugged. No true believer here. “I’ll be voting Labour next election, and higher taxes and redistribution of wealth sound like good things to me, but I don’t like bombs or blowing up civilians.”

“Moderate of you.”

“Oh hell, for all I know the secret is a lost treasure map of Anglo-Saxon kings. I’ve been thinking about this entirely too much.”

Kim grinned at him. Despite himself, he really liked this man. This job would be a hard needle to thread, but he was going to try to get Darling out of this trouble as unscathed as possible. He offered to “ask around” and make sure Ingoldsby was legitimate (a fact he already knew was true, more’s the pity) and also look into this Draven fellow. He already knew this as well, but he could frame it for Darling, and if he did it right, he could convince Darling to give up the hidden secret and keep him safe from Zodiac without him ever getting any more involved than he already was. In the meantime, he offered to help Darling search the shop. It would keep him close to the action, and if he found the secret first, well, even better.

*****

Kim kneeled before Will, cock in his mouth. This wasn’t what he had meant about being close to the action, but it couldn’t be helped. Will had made the first move, capturing Kim’s mouth the moment they were left alone after another encounter with Zodiac, and their blood was too high to resist the magnetic attraction that pulled them together in that moment. Will already knew Kim was engaged. Will already knew he was a war shirker. And Will wanted him anyway. Kim tried. He had _tried_ to keep this from happening. The first time he saw Will’s eyes darken as they sat alone in the bookshop-- dust flying from their search, musty paper smell in the air, and the sparks flying between them-- he had fled. Fled to Phoebe, gave her the barest bones of what was happening (minus the Special Bureau of it all), and submitted himself to her judgment. She just patted him on the head, accused him of being “Kimmish” again, and told him he was, of course, free to pursue his bookseller. “Don’t punish yourself, darling. You of all people deserve a little bit of fun.”

But Kim already knew, this couldn’t be mere fun. Will was tangled with Zodiac up to his eyeballs, and nothing Kim had managed to do had lessened the complications. Will wasn’t getting free anytime soon, and Kim wasn’t getting free of Will.

And this, _oh._ Will’s cock in his mouth, filling it with warmth and solid flesh. Kim had his preferences, things that made him even less acceptable to aristocratic expectations than his war shirking and the dreadful consequences of his refusal to fight. He loved to be used. His mind and his nerves settled in this moment, all focus on the man he kneeled before and the manhood he held on his tongue.

“Christ,” Will whispered.

Kim’s heart soared. He was _good_ at cocksucking. He pulled Will’s hips in, taking him deep. He could feel the tension in Will’s legs, trying not to thrust. Kim pulled off and smiled up at him, trying to signal that it was alright. “Use me,” he thought at that Darling man. He took him in again, sucking harder and faster. Will held his arms perpendicular to his body, braced against the bookshelf as he came, crucified by Kim’s mouth.

As Kim’s heart was crucified by Will’s whole person. There was no way this wasn’t going to get even messier.


End file.
